Photo By V. Lee
These acoustic versions of yOya’s “folktronic” songs make the soul sound of waking up with an itchy dancing foot. They’ve got a sleepy quality, but their groovy rhythms won’t be denied. You’ll find yourself waking up on the right side of the bed if you start your day with tunes like “Fireworks” and “The Heartwood.” The group has a late summer tour coming up, and their new album just dropped. Enjoy these rare stripped-down tracks, and be sure to listen to their latest release The Half Turn.
yOya bring a high energy, lo-fi sound to their Head Room Session. In “The Heartwood,” there’s crooning, pretty falsetto harmonies, and mellow drums, keys, and guitar to keep it all moving. The song’s tone and dynamics are both sides of a tug-of-war between awake and asleep that we find ourselves in most mornings. “Sleep in lines of rain going down through the heartwood” conjures the kind of rain-in stay-in morning that’s perfectly complimented by lazy coffee and making a quiet stand to stay unwound. yOya doesn’t seem to get too worked up, and this song matches that mood perfectly.
“Fireworks” on the other hand, brings a little more crunch to their craftily subdued sound. Using a shaker and light guitar, the song’s lyrics set a theme of summer setting and searching for what was found and lost during the warmer months. The lyrics sing, “Oh it’s happening. This morning we woke up old.” It’s a bittersweet sentiment that brings as much warmth as it does wanting. The chorus picks up with the full band coming in together on a harmonic call asking, “What’s happening?” An illustrative lyric, “The fireworks are funny, the duds fall in the water, fizzling like futures, the hissing sound of hell” captures the mood perfectly. Even when things are poised for greatness, duds make their way into the bunch. If that doesn’t capture the last few years, what does?